Monday, July 30, 2018

As the Syrian government marches forward with the liberation of the southwestern front, the United States, Europe, Israel, and Jordan are coming to the humanitarian rescue. But they aren’t rescuing civilians from terrorists or even from being caught in the crossfire. Instead, these countries have identified a group of “exceptional refugees” whose lives matter much more than those of the civilians the West has wantonly slaughtered for the last seven years.

Although refusing to open its borders, Israel (apparently the only country in the world that is allowed to maintain borders) has allowed members of the al-Nusra Front propaganda wing known as the White Helmets to access Israeli territory on their way to resettlement in Britain, Canada, and Germany according to Jordanian officials. Jordan was also part of the Caravan of Evil.

Estimates initially put the number of White Helmets being evacuated at 800 but those numbers were soon reduced to 500.

Syrian MP and Director of the Chamber of Commerce certainly seems to believe so.

His tweet read “The EU intends to evacuate about 800 White Helmets terrorists and move them to Europe before they get caught by the Syrian army as many of them MI6 operatives as all evidence in E Aleppo proved.”

So does Ziad Fadel of Syrian Perspective whose information and sources have been consistently reliable throughout the seven years of this war.

Friday, July 27, 2018

As Big Ag develops new and more effective ways of genetic engineering, it is also developing new and more effective means of marketing and propagandizing the public. For instance, while citizens across the world march against and protest genetic engineering conducted by adding a gene from one species to another, Big Ag began developing a new process that saw genes taken out. CRISPR, or gene editing, is, without a doubt, still genetic engineering. However, since the genes being engineered are being taken out instead of added in, the industry lobbied that the process is something entirely different and thus not genetic engineering.

As one might suspect, many governments across the world lept upon the claims by Big Ag so as to move ahead with approval of the products and thus make good on this opportunity to satisfy the major corporations that pay them and keep them fat in the halls of “public service.”

The question over whether or not gene editing is considered genetic engineering has been a battle that has been brewing in Europe for quite some time, with the issue making its way to the European Court of Justice. Today, that battle has seen the ECJ rule that gene editing and products made from CRISPR are indeed genetic engineering and that they are covered under the 2001 EU GMO Directive.

Member of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament and spokesperson on GMOs, Bart Staes said:

"Today's ruling is a victory for food safety and the environment. Just because the industry has come up with new ways to modify organisms does not mean that these techniques should be exempt from existing EU standards on GMOs. Recent scientific studies show that these new techniques might not be as accurate as the industry claims them to be, that's why it's essential that they come under the same labelling requirements and impact assessments as existing GMOs. These new patented organisms may have unintended effects, as well the potential to increase our dependence on the agri-chemical industry, and therefore must be stringently monitored by the European Food Safety Authority for any risks to human, animal and environmental health."

Despite the tense nature of American politics in 2018, there are a number of issues both Republicans and Democrats can agree on. Namely, support for Israel, police state measures, and foreign wars. But, recently, another issue of mutual agreement has popped up in the news - the issue of tariffs. After decades of watching Free Trade gut the American economy until it has become nothing more than a shell of its former self, virtually all Republicans and Democrats can agree that what America needs is more Free Trade.

That’s right. After decades of jobs being shipped overseas, lower wages, longer hours and general living standards plummeting in America, Republicans and Democrats claim that tariffs or (*shudders at the word*) “protectionism” could lead to disaster, i.e. job loss, lower wages, longer hours and general living standards plummeting in America. Never mind that tariffs and (here’s that scary word again) “protectionism” led to the creation of the greatest economic system in recorded history. Never mind that Free Trade has all but destroyed the greatness of that system. Just keep “thinking globally” even if your own home is falling apart at the seams.

Thus, hysteria over Trump’s tariffs has erupted from all quarters of the US government, particularly Congress, a collection of people who are well known to be the property of major corporations who, coincidentally, benefit from the lack of tariffs, cheap foreign labor, and low living standards among the working class.

After having rushed full steam ahead into the “global system” and internationalism, any hint of putting one’s own national economy first is met with hyperventilation and hysteria. Naturally, other countries like China who have been benefiting from internationalist policies (i.e. Free Trade) have responded in kind in order to keep the gravy train coming, imposing tariffs of their own and even taking their cases to the World Trade Organization.

As the Syrian government marches forward with the liberation of the southwestern front, the United States, Europe, Israel, and Jordan are coming to the humanitarian rescue. But they aren’t rescuing civilians from terrorists or even from being caught in the crossfire. Instead, these countries have identified a group of “exceptional refugees” whose lives matter much more than those of the civilians the West has wantonly slaughtered for the last seven years.

Although refusing to open its borders, Israel (apparently the only country in the world that is allowed to maintain borders) has allowed members of the al-Nusra Front propaganda wing known as the White Helmets to access Israeli territory on their way to resettlement in Britain, Canada, and Germany according to Jordanian officials. Jordan was also part of the Caravan of Evil.

All in all, around 800 White Helmets were evacuated from Syrian territory.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Israel's spearheading the move at the request of the United States and European governments. The dead of night operation comes a week after reports first surfaced that serious discussions were held on the matter during the July 11-12 NATO summit in Brussels.

The IDF official twitter account posted the following statement: "Following an Israeli Government directive and at the request of the United States and additional European countries, the IDF recently completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization and their families."

The IDF further called the effort "an exceptional humanitarian gesture" and additionally confirmed that the White Helmets were transferred "through Israel".

US officials including the State Department spokesperson have this summer made it a key talking point to warn of White Helmets being in "imminent danger" throughout Syria and face the threat of assassination especially in the country's southwest, as pro-government forces have now nearly completed their successful campaign to take back all of Daraa and Quneitra provinces.

Monday, July 16, 2018

In 1995, a PH.D candidate in Maritime Studies (specifically Chemical
Pollution), by the name of H. Lindsey Arison III, wrote a report entitled “The ‘Cover-Upof Gulf War Syndrome’ A Question of National Integrity,” where he discussed the
toxic chemicals that American service personnel were exposed to during the
first American invasion of Iraq and how that exposure may have been the cause
or one important contributing factor to the mysterious Gulf War Syndrome that
plagued so many soldiers and their families upon returning home.

Dr. Arison concluded:

The Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency,
and the Department of Veterans Affairs have been lying to the U.S. Congress,
Gulf War veterans, and the American people about coalition forces' exposure to
chemical and biological agents during the war.

This criminal, reprehensible, shameful, dishonorable, and
egregious act on their part has caused incalculable pain and suffering, caused
many who risked their lives for our flag to die, inflicted severe financial
hardships, caused many veterans' children to be born deformed and disabled,
caused many veterans' children to become diseased, destroyed marriages and
families, and eroded the trust of the American people in the institutions they
once revered.

Gulf War veterans are truly the victims of patriotism. What
they have suffered is the great American tragedy.

Those who have perpetrated and perpetuated this lie must be
held fully accountable.

It should be noted that Dr. Anison was an aide to the Undersecretary
of the United States Air Force at the Pentagon.

Friday, July 13, 2018

After the lowest moment of Trump’s presidency to date - the bombing of Syria despite the risk of a third world war - the OPCW has released a statement re-affirming that the United States, France, and the UK were wrong about their assertion that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in Douma in April, 2018.

OPCW designated labs conducted analysis of prioritised samples. The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties. Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody. Work by the team to establish the significance of these results is on-going. The FFM team will continue its work to draw final conclusions.

So, quite plainly, the decision to bomb Syrian government facilities, research facilities, and civilians in Syria was made on the basis of something that never actually took place. As virtually the entirety of the alternative media was able to report early on before the bombing, there were no chemical weapons used against civilians or terrorists in Douma by the Syrian government. Indeed, shortly after the attacks, clear evidence was presented which demonstrated that the attacks never actually happened. Even more so, clear evidence demonstrated that the attacks were entirely fabricated by the al-Nusra Front propaganda wing known as the White Helmets.

At best, the United States, UK, and France went headlong into a possible third world war half-cocked. However, such a possibility is overly generous to the Western powers who have been attempting to destroy Syria since 2011. More likely, the entire event was coordinated between the White Helmets and the Western powers in order to provide a justification for a military assault on the Syrian government. After all, Russian intelligence warned of an impending false flag in Syria in the days and weeks leading up to the attack, strongly suggesting that the United States (though not saying so outright) was behind the planning.

Unlike previous reports by the OPCW which were heavily politicized and which were heavily seized upon by the West, the Douma report involved an actual presence on the ground by the OPCW FFM, interview with witnesses and civilians, and actual environmental and biological samples, which virtually none of the previous politicized documents had.

In a powerful essay for Environmental Health News entitled “Monsanto’s Ghostwriting and Strong-arming Threaten Sound Science – And Society,” Sheldon Krimsky has blown the lid off a number of Monsanto scandals that have been buried in the mainstream corporate news per business as usual. Krimsky is a Lenore Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Community Medicine at Tufts University. He also the co-author of a study with Carey Gillam in which the two analyzed thousands of pages of internal Monsanto documents. Their study, along with a study by Leemon McHenry, has revealed massive amounts of corruption between Monsanto and academia.

The most recent examples of that corruption can be evidenced by looking at “discovery documents” which were released under the mandate of the courts as a result of a number of product liability lawsuits filed against Monsanto. In fact, there have been thousands of lawsuits filed against the corporation with the litigants arguing that they have contracted cancer after using Roundup. The lawsuits argue that the company knew full well that its product caused cancer but actively attempted to cover it up.

Gillam and I found three major trends illustrating one corporation's view of science, scholarly journals, and environmental regulatory agencies.

Our first finding showed that when the scientific literature did not yield the results Monsanto desired, the company talked internally about writing its own journal articles and paying outside scientists to list their names on the documents when they were sent for publication.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

As the Syrian government makes massive gains across the country, many are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the Western destabilization and attempt to destroy the secular government of Syria by the United States and the West. However, it must be remembered that the goal to impose hegemony across the world by the Anglo-financier system is not some fly-by-night venture that cropped up in 2011 to be easily abandoned in 2018. Indeed, the plan to destroy Syria has spanned nearly four decades, only moving into high gear in 2011 under the Obama administration.

While the destabilization initiative did begin in earnest under Obama’s watch, the truth is that previous administration were also heavily involved in the planning of Syria’s destruction.

For instance, in 2006, TIME revealed a leaked two-page document circulating amongst key figures in the Bush administration that openly stated that the U.S. was “supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora Syrian activists” in Europe. The document made no bones about expressing hope that “these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of actions for all anti-Assad activists.”

The document also stated, according to TIME, that Syria’s legislative elections which were going to take place in March of 2007, “provide a potentially galvanizing issue for . . . critics of the Assad regime.” The document expressed an open desire to take advantage of that opportunity by suggesting an “election monitoring” plan where “internet accessible materials will be available for printing and dissemination by activists inside the country [Syria] and neighboring countries.”

House Republicans can’t claim anything if they’re not earning their keep for massive corporations and other special interests whether it be genetically modified food, the banking and finance industry, pharmaceutical companies, the Israel lobby, and, of course, Big Oil.

In keeping with their history of doing the bidding of large interests, House Republicans have just put forward a proposals to impose fees on states that do not allow offshore drilling in state waters off their coasts. The measure is designed to punish states for opposing the Federal government’s plan to expand offshore drilling that began under the Obama administration and is continuing under the Trump administration.

The plan to expand offshore drilling has not only met with resistance from environmental activists, even Democrats and Republicans in offshore states have expressed concern and opposition to the plan after public outcry, a stance that has become more entrenched after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The proposal, which was discussed at a hearing held by the House Natural Resources Committee, will allow states to disapprove drilling offshore in up to half of the lease blocks located off their coasts without incurring a penalty. However, any state that disapproves a proposed lease sale that would seek to put more than 50 percent of the lease blocks off limits would have to pay a fee equal to at least 1/10th the estimated government revenue that would have been generated from the lease sales, royalties, and other revenue streams if the drilling had been allowed to take place.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Parents of children with autism constantly search for new methods of treatment to cure or, at the very least, alleviate the symptoms of their child’s illness. For the most part, the damage has been done when it comes to the effects on the brain and, for that reason, many parents find themselves on goose chase after goose chase.

While mainstream media, Big Pharma, and the medical industry refuse to look at the cause of autism, however, there is research being done in regards to the symptoms.

Basically, it has been discovered that children with autism have “urinary metabolites” which suggest impairments in a number of pathways, - oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, and gut microbiome alterations.

Interestingly enough, sulforaphane, a supplement with indirect antioxidant effects, has been shown to lead to improvements in the social responsiveness and behavior of children with ASD.

The study was designed to look at changes in urinary metabolites associated with clinical improvements in order to determine a “potential mechanism of action,” i.e. how it works.

Over 10 Million American Seniors Currently Facing Food Insecurity

Despite the government and its media mouthpieces’ constant claims regarding the “end of the great recession” and the elusive “recovery,” America is still experiencing depression level unemployment rates and vastly lower standards of living.

While the U.S. government touts unemployment rates at around 3%, the reality is that those numbers are more in the 20% range, with statistics being adjusted to make America seem as if it were right back there in its Golden Age of being the most prosperous economy on the face of the earth.

But, despite the celebration from government agencies and corporate media, the ability to meet basic needs like food are still incredibly dicey.

Claims of “substantial equivalence” between GMO plants and their non-GMO counterparts have been proven false

For years, the GMO industry as well as its mouthpieces in Western regulatory agencies and corporate media have dismissed any differences between natural plants and their GM counterparts by labeling the GM variety as “substantially similar” to the natural plant. This concept of “substantial equivalence,” however, has long been disputed and a recent meta-analysis of genetic data on rice, maize, canola, pumpkin, and sunflower is proving to be yet another blow against one of the favorite narratives favored by GM proponents.

In this latest peer-reviewed paper published in Frontiers In Plant Science, researchers from Mexico City looked at wild, GMO, and non-GMO varieties of the five crops mentioned above and analyzed their phenotypic change.

The phenotype of a crop is defined by a set of characteristics expressed by the crop’s genetic code (DNA). In theory, genetically engineered plants will show phenotypic changes only linked to the traits that scientists added to the GMO in the hope that they will be expressed. For example, a corn plant engineered to express the Bt toxin should not be different from normal corn in other ways.

Monday, July 2, 2018

It seems the entire Western world is desperately trying to escape the clutches of the GMO disaster it has allowed itself to be ensared in. While politicians, scientists, and corporate media have repeatedly sold them out, the people themselves seem to be doing everything they can to get a hold of organic, non-GMO food or, as previous generations would have labeled it, food.

Despite prices being obviously higher than those charged by the corporate industry, citizens all over the Western world are making sacrifices in order to gain access to clean food.

The predictions are made based on the forecasting of the licensees of the “Ohne GenTechNik” seal.

In 2017, the food industry sold 5.44 billion Euros worth of food with the “Ohne GenTechNik” seal of approval. Milk and dairy products made up the bulk of the sales while poultry and eggs also made up a significant part.

The German Association Of Food Without Genetic Engineering (VLOG) says that there will not be a challenge to meet the feed needs for an increase in the demand for non-GMO dairy products. VLOG says that rapeseed meal can take over if there is a lack of adequate grain feed and, even without rapeseed, there are plenty of avenues for import of non-GMO grain to make up the needed supply.

Overall pesticide-related illnesses, including those stemming from non-agricultural exposure, were up 10 percent over the prior year. DPR’s latest Pesticide Illness Report documented 1,187 cases in 2015, a third of them agricultural. Drift was to blame for most of the agricultural incidents, including one in Kern County that sickened 82 workers.

Monterey County’s 89 agricultural pesticide illnesses and injuries were third most in the entire state only to Fresno County’s 102 and Kern County’s 98 cases. Monterey County saw a 370 percent increase in such pesticide illnesses above 2014.

Interestingly, the report shows that, even when workers followed federal and state regulations, hundreds of people were still harmed.

Bill Gates is at it yet again. After promoting dangerous vaccines at home and abroad as well as GMOs in the third world, Gates is continuing on with his mission of promoting genetic modification by donating money to into a project allegedly designed to eradicate malaria.

The project consists of using genetically modified mosquitoes designed to pass on a self-destructive gene to their offspring, thus bringing about the demise and reduction of the Aedis Egypti mosquito.

Gates is pouring in $4 million of his own money into the project overseen by UK company Oxitec. The plan is to eradicate the Anepholes species of mosquito or, at the very least, to vastly lower its numbers in the wild.

The genetically modified version of Anepholes is not yet ready but Oxitec expects them to be ready for trial by 2020.

If this program sounds familiar, that's because it is.

Oxitec has been creating franken-mosquitoes for years under the guise of eradicating Dengue fever, Zika virus, and now malaria. Gates has also been involved with the same project, having donated $4.9 million to work on various "killer mosquitoes" projects.

One risk associated with the Oxitec experiment (both Aedes Aegypti and Anopheles) is the potential for the release of genetically engineered biting females into the environment. Since female mosquitoes are the mosquitoes which bite humans, Oxitec claims that its GE mosquito population is an all-boys club. However, due to the method by which the mosquitoes are sorted, the potential for release of female mosquitoes is very real.

While lawmakers in South Korea have long hesitated to actually ban the practice, some have moved forward with laws governing hygiene and/or cruelty and cruelty in slaughter methods.

“It is very significant in that it is the first court decision that killing dogs for dog meat is illegal itself,” said Kim Kyung-eun, a lawyer with animal rights organization Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth.

She also stated that the ruling has “paved the way for outlawing dog meat consumption entirely.”

The ruling came about after CARE filed complaints against a dog farm operator and accusing him of "killing animals without proper reasons," in addition to violating hygiene and building regulations."

Prosecutors charged the man and he was convicted, being fined $2,700 and waiving his right to appeal. The fact that he was found guilty, however, is giving animal rights activists a reason to cheer due to the fact that his conviction sets the precedent that killing dogs for food cannot be used as a legal defense.

Park So-youn, the leader of CARE is planning to repeat the process with other dog meat farms, tracking down the farms and slaughterhouses, filing complaints, and hoping for a similar legal outcome.

The head of the cooperative in the region of Aisne, Jean-Marie Camus, said "They systematically analyse the honey shipments they receive, and they found glyphosate."

Glyphosate, also known as Roundup, is the most widely used in France, though French President Emmanuel Macron has agreed to attempt to ban it by 2021.

While evidence has repeatedly shown that links Glyphosate to cancer, liver disease, and a host of other negative health effects, it has also been linked to the decline in the bee population, making the discovery of glyphosate in honey all the more concerning since it is clearly reaching bees.

The new European Soviet, the EU, renewed the license for glyphosate weedkillers last November despite many Europeans and even European governments having deep reservations and intense opposition.

I recently wrote an article describing a number of the horrors surrounding the animal testing industry, specifically the use of dogs in that industry. The article relied heavily on information written in an article by Glenn Greenwald and Leighton Akio Woodhouse entitled “Bred To Suffer.” During the course of my article, I wrote of how lax laws regarding animal testing are in America, a fact that some have found surprising.

As a result, I thought it necessary to provide a short follow-up to point out just how tolerant America's legal system is to torturing animals under the guise of experimentation.

The main law that oversees animal experimentation is the 1966 Animal Welfare Act (aka the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act). Under the law, all forms of experimentation on animals is legally acceptable despite better and more accurate research methods currently in existence. A few states have banned product testing on animals so long as alternatives are available.

The law does require minimal standards of “humane treatment” before the animals are tortured, however. But, even with the rules are complied with, the standards are anything but humane.

One such example is that the standards require that a dogs’ cage be six inches taller than its height and six inches longer than its body length. But, if the “researchers” double the size of the cage, they can avoid the standard that requires the dog to be released from its cage for exercise.

“So far we are just scratching the surface. This is a ticking timebomb.”

As the knowledge regarding the link between Talcum powder and diseases such as Ovarian cancer and mesothelioma grow amongst the population of the Western world, there is also a growing movement for retribution from the companies who knowingly sold the substance to women across the planet without informing them of the cancer risks or the fact that their product had been cross contaminated with asbestos.

Having first begun in earnest in the United States, that movement is now taking off in the UK, where solicitor Phillip Gower is worried that thousands of British women may have cancer linked to the extensive use of talc. Many of these victims would have no idea that their diagnosis is linked to such a ubiquitous and seemingly harmless product.

Most of these women have been using talc since they were teenagers and, for that reason, middle aged women are at vastly higher risk for developing cancer that can be traced back to those products. US victims have already successfully sued talc manufacturers for millions of dollars over the issue and now it seems people in the UK will be doing the same.

Phillip Gower of Simpson Millar solicitors is now teaming up with a US attorney who has already won a number of suits for women injured by talc.

In April, a New Jersey investment banker won $117 million in damages after developing mesothelioma through talc that had been contaminated with asbestos dust and sold through Johnson and Johnson talcum powders.

As more and more evidence demonstrating that ketamine, a veterinary anesthetic used recreationally by many people, can actually produce benefits, scientists are increasingly looking at the possibility that ketamine can be used to treat disorders like depression.

Many casual ketamine users have long known that ketamine can alleviate depression, or at least the symptoms of it. But a hesitance in the scientific community to listen to non-PhDs and a barbaric drug war have long prevented adequate research into the subject.

The research that has been done, however, has discovered that recreational users were right. Now scientists are trying to figure out how ketamine actually alleviates the symptoms of depression.

In a new study entitled, “NMDAR-Independent, cAMP-dependent antidepressant actions of ketamine,” published in the Nature journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago looked at the mechanism of how ketamine dampens the symptoms of depression. These researchers claim that ketamine works similar to SSRIs. Essentially, the main active component is the G protein, which produces cyclic AMP, a messenger that nerve cells need in order to signal properly.

Earlier research has shown that people with depression have higher numbers of G proteins in their cell membranes. Researchers believe that this dampens the signals of cells which then contributes to the symptoms of depression, particularly the feeling of emotional numbness.

Canada is now tiptoeing into the 21st century with the recent passage of a marijuana legalization bill. The new legislation, known as the Cannabis Act (C-45), has now made Canada the second nation to legalize recreational marijuana in the world after Uruguay.

The Cannabis Act passed in the Canadian Senate 52 to 29.

But while many are hailing the new law, it must be kept in mind that there is a vast difference between legalization and decriminalization, the latter being the most desirable since the former often involves strict controls. While decriminalization means that no laws will be passed to restrict the possession, production, or consumption of the plant, legalization works on the premise that the individual has not the right to consume what they choose but that the government is responsible for designating that consumption as a privilege.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to Twitter to emphasize that difference when he said, “It’s been too easy for our kids to get marijuana – and for criminals to reap the profits. Today, we change that. Our plant to legalize and regulate marijuana just passed the Senate.”

Still, the move is undeniably a major step in the right direction.

Once the legislation goes into effect, Canadian adults over 18 years of age will no longer be arrested and thrown into cages for possessing less than 30 grams of marijuana in public.

However, marijuana purchases must be made through government-approved vendors that themselves will be regulated by the Federal government and the states and provinces.

DeWayne Johnson is doing everything he can to survive but the odds are not in his favor. He has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 80% of his body is covered in cancerous legions.

Still, as a husband and a father in California, he is trying to stay alive long enough to at least see Monsanto be forced to reckon with the fact that one of the world’s most evil corporations is responsible for his condition.

Under California law, Johnson has the right to an expedited trial since he is a dying patient.

Johnson will be the first person to actually take Monsanto to trial over allegations that its herbicide Roundup causes cancer and that the corporation spent decades attempting to hide the fact that it is responsible for the disease.

According to the court record, Johnson had a job as a groundskeeper for the Benicia unified school district where he applied numerous treatments of Monsanto’s herbicides to school properties from 2012 until at least late 2015. He was healthy and active before he got the cancer diagnosis in August 2014. In a January deposition, Johnson’s treating physician testified that more than 80% of his body was covered by lesions, and that he probably had but a few months to live. Johnson has improved since starting a new drug treatment in November but remains too weak sometimes to even speak or get out of bed, his attorneys and doctors state in court filings.

An illuminating report by Glenn Greenwald and Leighton Akio Woodhouse of The Intercept entitled “Bred To Suffer,” has shed some much needed light on the animal testing industry and the utter cruelty inflicted upon innocent animals for corporate gains and, many times, absolutely no reason whatsoever.

While Greenwald and Woodhouse focus on the dog experimentation industry, it should be kept in mind that dogs are not the only animals used. Cats, rabbits, monkeys, guinea pigs, rats, are also victims in horrific numbers. Most of these animals are bred for experimentation – never to experience a moment of freedom or kindness – to live a life of extreme torture and, when the torture is done, they are killed for no longer being of use. For these animals, a short existence is the best they can hope for. Dying at birth is a blessing.

The USDA’s own “Animal Usage Report,” lists that 60,979 dogs were used for experimentation in the United States in 2016. 60 thousand dogs in one year alone. The reported number for all animals was 820,812 (roughly 183k guinea pigs, 139k rabbits, 102k hamsters, 71k non-human primates, i.e. monkeys, 60k dogs, 50k pigs, 18k cats, 12k sheep, 20k other farm animals, and 161k other covered species). Many animals such as fish and birds are not covered under the reporting requirements and thus no numbers exist by which to measure the amount being experimented on. However, estimates range from 20 to 100 million.

2016 saw an increase of animal testing by 6.9 percent as compared to 2015 according to Speaking of Research.

The latest country in Africa to approve GMO cultivation has recently announced its plan to begin cultivating both Bt Cotton and “biotech maize.” Ethiopia is approving the new genetically modified crop as growing expansion of GMOs threatens to overtake the African continent in what can only be described as Western corporate imperialism.

The Government of Ethiopia is the latest African country to authorize cultivation of biotech crops by granting two landmark approvals for environmental release of Bt cottonand research trials on biotech maize. In a letter signed by the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change H.E. Gamado Dale to the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (Applicant), the country will start with two Bt cotton hybrids: JKCH1050 and JKCH1947. The release for Bt cotton is based on experts' analysis of the results from two-season confined field trials conducted under the supervision of the Biosafety Affairs Directorate of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change and Biosafety technical working team drown from different institutions that have evaluated the final report submitted by the applicant. The Ethiopian government has identified cotton as a strategically important commodity crop to supply raw material for the rapidly growing textile sector and to generate thousands of jobs along the cotton sub-sector value chain.

On maize, the research institute will commence confined field trials of an event with stacked traits for drought tolerance and insect resistance in partnership with the African Agricultural Technology Foundation. The research permit is for five years.

Troubling amounts of off-target injury reports are coming from across the South and Midwest of the United States from 2, 4-D dicamba spraying. The new reports are forcing weed scientists and regulators to urge farmers that are going to utilize dicamba to stay “on label.”

According to Texas A&M Extension Cotton Specialist Gaylon Morgan, cotton growers in Texas are seeing more dicamba damage to cotton than would otherwise be considered normal during this time of year. Larry Steckel, University of Tennessee Extension weed scientist has also seen a number of reports of injury in the Western part of the state and at least one dicamba injury report.

Dicamba injury complaints have been filed in Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, and Arkansas according to the American Association of Pesticide Control Officers, primarily on non-soybean plants including vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, and trees.

Morgan states that applicator confusion about spray buffers is probably the most common reason of the damage in Texas. "If there is susceptible crop downwind from your field, you cannot spray when the wind is blowing in that direction -- there are no buffers that allow you to spray," he said. "I think that is the single biggest misunderstanding out there."

Steckel says recent rainy weather has forced Tennessee farmers to utilize a tinier window of time when deploying dicamba. "There simply being no good day to spray has been the biggest problem here," he said.

The political theatre between climate change fanaticism and free market lack of regard for the environment is continuing apace and notably so with a recent move by the EPA Science Advisory Board.

The SAB voted on May 31 to review a series of rules that the EPA under administrator Scott Pruitt, proposed over the past eight months.

These new rules include a plan to limit the use of “secret science” as well as proposals to strike down limits imposed on greenhouse gas emissions.

The former rule change would prevent the EPA from relying on scientific studies that include “non-public data” in formulating its policy. Pruitt is framing the new decision to be based on transparency.

On May 12, the SAB criticized the EPA for not submitting the new rule to the SAB for review. As Nature reports, “The working group is very much in favor of transparency,” said Alison Cullen, an environmental health researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle and chair of the working group, during the SAB meeting. But on this particular proposal, there is a “very real lack of clarity” in how the rule would be applied," she said.

A number of scientists and environmentalists argue that the new EPA rule is counterproductive simply because it limits the agency in what data it can use. They argue that some of the data cannot be made public due to privacy concerns.

Both sides clearly have a point. If the EPA has non-public information pointing toward a certain chemical being toxic, for instance, the EPA should be able to formulate a policy based on the real scientific evidence.

After horrible press, fines, and imprisonments, Volkswagon once again found itself in the middle of a controversy when it was revealed that the company was testing its product on animals.

Despite having fudged the numbers on its pollution standards software to appear more compliant, Volkswagon had been using macaque monkeys to test the health effects of diesel exhaust.

The monkeys were contained in an airtight chamber and had diesel fuel exhaust spewed in their faces.

This time, however, Volkswagon is doing the right thing and announcing that it will no longer test its products on animals.

“Research projects and studies must always be balanced with consideration of ethical and moral questions,” wrote Mr. Herbert Diess, Volkswagon Chief Executive, in a letter to PETA. “Volkswagen explicitly distances itself from all forms of animal abuse. In the future, we will rule out all testing on animals, as long as there are no pressing — such as legal — reasons that would make this necessary.”

“Volkswagen did the right thing in pledging to no longer conduct tests on animals, which are irrelevant to human health and not required by law,” said Kathy Guillermo, a senior vice president at the group. “PETA is calling on other carmakers that still test on animals to follow suit and embrace modern and humane, animal-free research methods instead.”

Whales Hunted in the Name of “Science”

Japan has long taken a toll on the whale population and 2018, despite a ruling by the International Whaling Commission, will be no different.

A new report by Japan to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Committee has now confirmed that 333 whales were murdered during the most recent hunt in the Southern Ocean. Of the 333 whales, 122 were pregnant. 53 were immature specimens.

The report was submitted to the SCIWC ahead of the IWC meeting in late May of 2018 in an effort to demonstrate that its scientists were gathering useful and valuable data on whale populations as a result of their hunt and that there are enough whales in the ocean so that commercial whaling can be resumed.

The Japanese government has long used a loophole in the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling that, while prohibiting commercial whaling, allows countries to “kill, take and treat whales for purposes of scientific research." Japan has also long argued that whaling is an important part of its livelihood and culture.

Environmentalists and animal rights activists point out that the Japanese whalers are acting in defiance of the International Court of Justice in the Hague’s 2014 ruling and claim that the “scientific” whaling missions are just thinly disguised commercial hunts masquerading as “science.” These activists want the hunts to stop immediately.

Whales Hunted Despite Sanctuary

They also claim that the Japanese government is ignoring the declaration by the Australian and New Zealand governments which designated a large portion of the Southern Ocean to be a wildlife sanctuary where whaling is prohibited.

A recent report circulating throughout the mainstream media regarding the coming “insolvency” of Medicare and Social Security has sent shockwaves through the United States with many of the Baby Boomer generation concerned that, after working and paying into the program their entire lives, they will be left with nothing when it finally comes time to stop working.

Medicare will run out of money sooner than expected, and Social Security's financial problems can't be ignored either, the government said Tuesday in a sobering checkup on programs vital to the middle class.

The report from program trustees says Medicare will become insolvent in 2026 — three years earlier than previously forecast. Its giant trust fund for inpatient care won't be able to fully cover projected medical bills starting at that point.

The report says Social Security will become insolvent in 2034 — no change from the projection last year.

The warning serves as a reminder of major issues left to languish while Washington plunges deeper into partisan strife. Because of the deterioration in Medicare's finances, officials said the Trump administration will be required by law to send Congress a plan next year to address the problems, after the president's budget is submitted.

A regional grocery chain named Vons has beat out Whole Foods as the grocery chain topped the list of stores where vegetarians and customers seeking meat alternatives shop. More surprising, Vons is a 115 year old grocery chain that has a kind of cult following in southern California and Nevada.

So what do we make of this and what does it mean for Whole Foods and other large health food store chains like Trader Joe’s who also lost out to Vons?

In all honesty, it doesn’t mean much. Vons has a chain of stores in the locations where Whole Foods is known to have most of its vegetarian customers – Southern California – so it’s no surprise that a regional chain that keeps the prices a little lower and already has a massive following in the same area would absorb many of those customers, raising the percentage rate of overall customers for their own stores.

It does, however, show that vegetarianism and at least the addition of meat free items to meals is going mainstream and, once previously the domain of health food and specialty stores, mainstream chains and corporate America are both being forced to get in on the act and eagerly awaiting the next gravy train.

Lastly, it shows that companies like Whole Foods (though not so much Trader Joe’s) are actually moving further and further away from their base.

Whole Foods, often known as “Whole Paycheck” is well understood to be prohibitively overpriced with many of its products not even being as “whole” or as “healthy” as it claims.

The decline in the bee populations were confirmed by All Ireland Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme which is coordinated by Dr. Tomas Murray, National Biodiversity Data Centre Senior ecologist in Waterford County.

Ireland has 21 different species of bumblebee, all of which are vital in the pollination process for both crops and wild plants. The findings mentioned above were based upon the past six years of monitoring at over 100 sites and focusing on eight of the most common Irish bumblebee species.

“Based on a 2006 ‘red list’ , we already knew that six of our rarer 21 bumblebee species are threatened with extinction from this island,” Dr Murray said.

Bumblebees do not cluster in hives and are larger than honey bees.

“These include the charismatic great yellow bumblebee now confined to the northwest and the shrill carder bee, with its distinctive buzz, now only found in isolated populations in the west of Ireland,” he said.

Only months after the U.S. government's “spending freeze” and review of money allocated to the al-Nusra Front propaganda wing known as the White Helmets, the U.S. State Department has announced that it is going to “release” approximately $6.6 million for the terror support group as well as to the UN’s International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism.

This news comes after the UK has announced it is considering increasing funds provided to the White Helmets after itself being the biggest financial supporter of the terrorist propaganda organization.

The President has authorized the United States Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of State to release approximately $6.6 million for the continuation of the vital, life-saving operations of the Syrian Civil Defense, more commonly known as the White Helmets, and the UN’s International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM).

The United States Government strongly supports the White Helmets who have saved more than 100,000 lives since the conflict began, including victims of Assad’s chemical weapons attacks. These heroic first responders have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and continue to be deliberately targeted by the Syrian regime and Russian airstrikes.‎ Since 2013, more than 230 of these brave volunteers have been killed while working to save innocent Syrian civilians.

The IIIM’s work is vital to assisting the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Syria since March 2011.‎ Their mandate, collecting and analyzing evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses‎ will help ensure those responsible for these crimes are ultimately held accountable.

In other words, after a fake spending freeze, the White Helmets may be getting a raise by the UK to make up for the lack of US funding in addition to receiving its funding back from the United States, a net gain for the White Helmets with which to stage more chemical weapons attacks, rescues, or other propaganda videos.

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Observations from Occupied Palestine: Gaza – In Gaza

Quoth The Raven, "Veritas"

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